


Tsubasa and Associates

by GohanRoxas



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Paranormal, F/M, Ghosts, POV First Person, Rating May Change, Spirits, Undead, Vampire!Riku, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 18:44:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3820870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GohanRoxas/pseuds/GohanRoxas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you a psychic planning to profit and protect from the paranormal pandemic?<br/>I certainly hope so.<br/>The position of “medium” here at Tsubasa & Associates has recently – very recently – been vacated, for reasons I hope you never learn.<br/>Applicants must be registered as a Level Three or above psychic, and have at least a Level Five ranking of swordsmanship.<br/>The successful applicant must not have a petrifying and mind-numbing fear of a sudden and/or painful death.<br/>Enquire within…"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tsubasa and Associates

If you’d asked me about five years ago if my idea of a good time was to be stalking around the manicured garden of a manor house on the outskirts of Twilight Town, I’d have laughed and said, “Hell no.”

If you asked me now if my idea of a good time was to be stalking around the manicured garden of a manor house on the outskirts of Twilight Town…I’d still say “Hell no.”

I wasn’t alone – which could be considered a good thing or a bad thing, depending on one’s look on things – as I had been joined by my three compatriots from Tsubasa and Associates, Paranormal Investigators.

Sora, a slightly giddy young man who seemed more like a boy with his sunny outlook and messy brown hair, was our werewolf expert – which probably explained why he had a pistol on his right hip as well as his sword on his left; the pistol was loaded with silver bullets – harmless to most, deadly to werewolves.

Xion acted as our “Queen of the Undead,” as I’d heard her called once. To her credit, she had given the man who’d given him it a look that spoke death in and of itself. Xion seemed like the stereotypical goth/emo teenager, with her messy, short black hair and tendency to wear all black, but she was actually quite the character. She excelled in dealing with zombies, wraiths and various other beings of undeath that manifest on the first, physical plane.

I myself acted as the group’s medium – or psychic, if you want to put it that way. I speak to ghosts, and they speak back. Now, you’d expect someone like me to be very similar to Xion, really: dark hair and clothing and a morbid-seeming outlook of the world. Oh no. I was a woman in her mid-twenties with blue hair that had never really grown up out of my teens.

And then…there was Riku Tsubasa.

Our “leader” and head of the self-named Tsubasa and Associates, he was a mystery wrapped in an enigma that was tied up in a pretty little bow made of puzzles. His silver hair confused me, considering he appeared to be about a year younger than me – and his eyes seemed to be both blue and green all at once. Tonight, he wore his usual clothing – a short-sleeved white button-down that had a few buttons undone at the collar, a loose-fitting black tie and black jeans.

Riku was our expert on the most dreadful of the paranormal – an entity we rarely had to deal with: vampires.

Well, it seemed only fair.

After all, he’s a vampire himself.

I…guess I should actually start this story at the actual beginning.

* * *

_Two weeks earlier…_

* * *

I read the typed-up paper sign with bemusement.

_MEDIUM WANTED_

_Are you a psychic planning to profit and protect from the paranormal pandemic?_

_I certainly hope so._

_The position of “medium” here at Tsubasa & Associates has recently – very recently – been vacated, for reasons I hope you never learn._

_Applicants must be registered as a Level Three or above psychic, and have at least a Level Five ranking of swordsmanship._

_The successful applicant must not have a petrifying and mind-numbing fear of a sudden and/or painful death._

_Enquire within…_

Beside the ridiculous-seeming letter was a plaque engraved with various names and titles, including a rather large gap where the name of a psychic should be (I noticed idly that the gap seemed a tad fresh):

**Floors Two & Three**

_**Tsubasa and Associates, Paranormal Investigators:** _

**Owner & Vampiric Expert – R.Tsubasa**

**Werewolf Expert – S.Fair**

**Undead Expert – X.Valentine**

**Spirit Expert –**

**Floor One**

_**Seventh Heaven Café & Restaurant** _

**Owner – T.Lockhart**

I arched one delicate blue eyebrow when I noticed that there was a café underneath the offices of a paranormal investigator. That was an unexpected development.

Before I go any further, I suppose I should elaborate a little more on who I am and what in the nine hells is a paranormal investigator.

My name is Aqua Holland. I’m twenty-six years of age, a Sagittarius, and I’m a psychic. My sister Naminé is also a low-level psychic who has no intentions of being trained to join a paranormal investigator, thank the Gods.

All those stories of vampires, werewolves, zombies and ghosts…they’re real. No-one’s really sure how they began – especially vampires and werewolves – but in recent years they’ve reached endemic levels. They’re everywhere now, and sometimes they threaten our very existence.

The purpose of a paranormal investigator – or in this case an agency – is to ensure that the public is kept safe from these threats in any way possible. From negotiating with vampires to destroying werewolves or the other way around, they do it all.

A raven haired woman with red-brown eyes and a bust that I envied – and I’m not exactly lacking in that department – stepped into the doorway, cleaning a plate with a tea towel. She spotted me and smiled. “Oh, hey! Here for a drink? Or are you here about Riku’s job offer?”

I blinked. “Riku?”

“Yeah, Riku Tsubasa, the guy above me?” She put the plate and towel down on a table and held out a slender hand. “I’m Tifa. I run Seventh Heaven down here.”

I took the hand and shook it, smiling. “Aqua. It’s a pleasure.”

“I’m guessing then it’s the job.” Tifa’s smile widened slightly. “I should warn you that the position isn’t gonna be easy.”

“How do you know that?”

There was a screaming noise as a brown-haired girl dashed down the stairs in the back-left corner of the room, her hands in her hair as she ran out the door, still screaming, the noise almost blood-curdling.

“Just a hunch,” Tifa joked, shrugging nonchalantly. “And the thing is, that’s the fourth one today.” She let go of my hand and stepped inside, with me following close behind. “The office is up those stairs. Oh, and, uh… If you don’t become number five, feel free to have a drink on the house.” Giggling slightly, she winked at me and stepped behind the counter.

A little confused, I went up the stairs and knocked on the door.

When it opened, a man with spiky brown hair stood there, his blue eyes wide. “Oh, hey! Another one hoping to get the job?”

I gulped and nodded. “That’s me.” I held out a hand. “Aqua Holland.”

He shook my hand vigorously. “Sora, Sora Fair. Glad to meet you.” Once he’d let go of my hand, he led me inside the first floor of Tsubasa and Associates, giving me an abbreviated tour. “This floor has a sitting room and the boss’ office at the end of that hallway.” He pointed at a closed door before leading me to the aforementioned sitting room.

The room was rather spacious, but was littered with various implements and papers. Inside were two women who seemed to be polar opposites of one another. One had auburn hair and wore pink, the other short black hair and all black clothes. The woman who seemed more girly stood up and smiled. “Hey! So, is this number five for the day?”

“I kinda hope not,” the other woman said, not looking up from her leather-bound book. “The screaming’s getting on my nerves.”

“Xion!”

She looked up and winked, a slight smirk on her face.

Sora laughed awkwardly and scratched his head. “Ladies, this is applicant number five: Aqua Holland. Aqua, this is my girlfriend – and sister of the owner of Seventh Heaven – Kairi Lockhart, while her morose-seeming friend there is Xion Valentine, our expert on all things undead.”

Both girls greeted me with a “Hi” that had varying degrees of welcoming.

“You should probably introduce her to Riku,” Xion rebuked my companion. “We don’t want her to get too familiar with the place if she’s not staying.”

“Right, right, yeah,” Sora muttered, ignoring the last comment and pulling me gently out of the room. Once we were back in the hallway, he started muttering to me. “Don’t worry about Xion. She’s only that cold to strangers. She’s got a golden heart under all that.” Once we reached the door, he let go of my arm and stepped back.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“Sorry,” he apologised. “Riku does the interviews on his own.” He swung his arms idly, clicking his teeth a little. “Good luck,” he said then before rushing back down the hall.

Confused, I stepped into the room.

The office was rather dark, but the light of a fireplace lit everything up. Idly, I was confused as to exactly why there was a fireplace in a second-floor room, but I ignored that.

Behind the desk at the centre of the room sat a man with silver hair and blue-green eyes, his feet kicked up onto the desk. In his hand he held a strange-looking curved knife and was studying it curiously.

I cleared my throat.

The man looked up at me and smiled. “Ah, you must be Miss Holland.”

“Um…I didn’t-“

“-Mention that you were coming, and neither did Sora?” He smiled again, which seemed a little condescending. “I have my ways of knowing things.” He put the knife down alongside two other items – a watch and a teacup. “May I see your credentials?”

Gulping, I handed over the sheets of paper that served as my ‘credentials’.

The man perused them, licking his lips. “Let’s see… A Level Five psychic, specializing in defensive barriers?” He whistled. “Impressive.” There was a pause as he read on, until his eyes widened. “Level Ten swordsmanship?”

I blushed a little. “My parents were investigators back in the day.”

“I see. Interesting…” He handed back the papers and tented his fingers, sitting back in his chair. “Do you know what I am?”

I blinked. “Um, you’re Riku Tsubasa, owner of…”

He smiled again. “Not _who_ , Miss Holland. _What_.”

I blinked again. And again. “I don’t…”

Riku stroked his chin and smiled again. Behind his lips were a glistening pair of fangs.

My heart caught in my throat. A vampire…?

He chuckled mirthlessly; I could see his fangs retract into his mouth. “I’m impressed you didn’t run away screaming. That’s what made the first two do it. To make a long story short, yes, I am a vampire, turned when I was twenty-five, three years ago. I was already a minor investigator at that point, but as soon as I was turned, my agency fired me, resulting in me opening one of my own. And don’t worry. I don’t feed on people. When the hunger takes me over, I have a fridge of blood packs – cow’s blood, mainly – left over from Tifa’s orders from the local butcher.”

I just nodded, gobsmacked.

Riku laughed again, though this time it seemed genuine. “Alright then. Guess that means it’s time for the thing that made the other two run in terror.” He gestured at the three objects on the table. “As a psychic, you should be able to get a residual reading from these three objects. Feel free to try.”

Curious, I picked up the watch first. Immediately, images and feelings came to my mind.

That’s the thing about mediums and psychics. We deal with the “astral plane,” where spirits reside. However, when something particularly violent happens when a person dies and becomes a spirit, it leaves a kind of “astral residue” on objects and locations – from the stones of a building to a blade of grass. If a medium can find it, they can even ascertain how a person died years after it happened.

Touching the watch, I felt so many things. Happiness. Love. Fear. Anger. Shock. Death. “With this one…I think it was a gift from a wife to a husband…but the relationship soured afterwards, and the husband killed his wife.”

Riku smiled, seemingly amused. “The teacup, if you will.”

I didn’t exactly expect to feel much from the teacup, so I wasn’t fully prepared for the sheer amount of rage the thing exuded. A fiery rage, a jealous rage…a shattering. I blinked and looked again at the teacup – it had several fracture marks all over it. “A jealous lover…smashed the teacup onto her partner’s head, killing him. I can’t be sure if it was deliberate murder or an accident.”

The vampire’s expression didn’t change. “And lastly, the knife.”

Knives were well-known as havens for astral residue. They were murder weapons, usually, and so carried plenty of emotions, both from the wielder and the victim. This one, though… I grasped around with my mind and I…didn’t find a thing… “I’m sorry,” I apologised morosely. “I can’t get a single astral trace from that.”

He finally broke out in a wide smile. “I should hope not. That’s my cheese knife.”

His what?

“You were very close on the other two. In fact, the teacup was almost dead on. It was a manslaughter case, where a jealous lover smashed the teacup onto the head of their lover. Only the owner of the cup was a man.”

I blinked.

“As was the victim.”

“Oh.”

“And finally, the watch. You were right about the violent death aspect of it, and that it was a gift from a wife to a husband. But it was the husband that died. He’d had an argument with his wife and decided to clean his gun. He’d forgotten to check if it was loaded before he started, though. Suffice it to say, he got quite the shock when he began to clean around the trigger.”

I winced at the thought. “So…I got it wrong. Guess I don’t get the job, huh?”

He blinked. “Miss Holland…” He stood up. “I must ask you…”

I stood as well, my head drooped, expecting my failure to be announced in clear words.

I could not have been more surprised by the four words Riku said then.

“When can you start?”

* * *

“Miss Holland!” Riku whispered harshly, breaking me out of my memories.

“Huh?”

Xion slammed her hand onto her face, sighing. “Great. Another space cadet.”

“Easy, Xion,” Riku smiled. “We don’t know that yet. Be ready, Miss Holland,” he added, turning to me (I still had no idea why he still referred to me by my last name, but not Xion or Sora), “we’re getting close to the Hanging Tree.”

**Author's Note:**

> The scene with the watch, the teacup and the knife was inspired by "Lockwood and Co.: The Screaming Staircase" by Jonathan Stroud, a novel I highly recommend. Point of fact, a lot of this story is inspired by this book.
> 
> Also, the unofficial anthem of this story is "The Other Side" by Bruno Mars, CeeLo Green and B.o.B.


End file.
